As part of the Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights kick-off, I was invited to speak at Jay Bakker's church, Revolution NYC, which meets in Pete's Candy Store, a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The sermon, also featuring Rev. Vince Anderson, and Jay, is available as part of Revolution's free iTunes podcast.
So many times the fight for freedom is a lonely one. The need to fight at all is a constant reminder of what almost every LGBT person would rather forget: that we are different, often hated, never able to just live our lives like everybody else. Maybe that's why there are so few LGBT activists - when the nature of your minority status is one that can allow you to pass, it is even more difficult to stand up for yourself... what sane person would ever step into a fire of misunderstanding and hatred when they could choose not to?
And yet, here you are - a straight person, surrounded by other straight people, joining that lonely fight. You don't have to. It would be so easy to walk away, to focus on any of the dozens of other issues and challenges that demand your attention, to stay safely on the sidelines of what many will say is not your fight. Yet, again, here you are. There is a divine madness in that. Thank you for walking this road with me, for standing in the fire for the sake of my right to love... for taking up this cross in a way that I can't, speaking to audiences who simply don't have the ears to hear a lesbian, or a gay man, or a transgender person.
Speak strongly. Love those who persecute us. Know that whatever happens, just by standing with us, you've made a difference. Thank you.
I am a teacher, I am a friend, I am the partner of a trans-man, I am a daughter, I am a sister, I am queer
Thank you for supporting me and all of my identities
Thank you for knowing how necessary that support is.
As part of the Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights campaign LGBT folks submitted short messages for the participants to reflect on while they literally took a stand for equality. Below is one of many messages (and some pictures from the event).
I remember the moment when the Massachusetts Supreme Court handed down marriage equality. I was still in high school, living at home. I was sitting at my computer in the basement reading Yahoo News and there it was. I read the article three times. It was over 400 miles away and yet it made a profound impact on my life.
There is a young kid, questioning his or her orientation or gender identity, who feels all alone. Tomorrow that kid will read of this on the internet--these straight people who care enough about people like him that they gathered together to stand for equality--and it will change that kid's life. In your small step, only 12 inches off the ground, you are making waves of change.
For the last event of Seven Straight Nights in New York City, we gathered at McCarren Park for a rally organized by Jay Bakker and the folks at Revolution NYC. As I walked to the park with my straight friends who were going to participate, a van drove passed and a man yelled out "No rights for faggots!"
Anti-gay epithets have been hurled at me more in New York City than the rest of my life combined. This is why we do what we do.
The man, or men, in the van circled McCarren Park yelling that same phrase over and over again. Oppression disturbs not only the oppressed but the oppressors as well. They are victims of misinformation and we are all trapped in systems and cycles of oppression. This man took out over an hour of his day, time he could have spent being productive, spent with his family, spent enjoying himself, and he drove his van around, yelling at straight and gay people who love themselves and each other.
During training for the Equality Ride, we practiced non-violence by role playing verbally and emotionally violent scenarios with a two-fold goal: to practice hearing awful things said about us, but also to understand the awful places a person must go to in order to degrade another person's humanity. And so as this man I don't know yelled at us, viewing us as nothing more than a group of faggots, I felt sorry for him, not for myself. In New York, my gay friends cannot have their marriages legally recognized but they marry anyway. In some places, their love is not recognized but they love anyway. I know people who have been kicked out of family, but they find family. I was surronded by love and compassion in McCarren Park. When that man yelled "No rights for faggots," he wasn't taking anything away from me, he was robbing himself.
Today marked the first day of Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights, a week where straight people across the country will stand up and speak out in support of their gay and transgender friends. As Mayra has been planning the events in New York over the past months, I have told her that things will fall in line, that we see justice in our minds and that we will call people into that reality. Today, I saw justice.
Jay Bakker spoke to the young adults group at Marble Church with a conviction, clarity, and passion that I have never seen. I could feel the energy in the room and the reactions I heard from others assured me that I was not the only one.
Soulforcers and GLSEN volunteers collected hundreds of postcards in support of comprehensive anti-bullying legislation; raising awareness and creating the necessary social pressure to enact political change.
Revolution NYC is completely committed to this campaign, enrolling volunteers to create materials needed for their event on Thursday and I saw every attendee listening intently as Jay, Vince, and I shared stories from our lives about the need for straight to stand up and stand with LGBT people.
Grasslands Gallery graciously hosted a screening of Equality U and New Yorkers of all stripes got to see what non-violent reconciliation looks like in action and be called to action themselves. During the Q&A that followed, I could perceive through the questions that wheels were turning and minds were engaging.
Today was a primer for events on Wednesday and Thursday, when straight folks will be able to take their affirmation public. The Equality Ride changed me and I have no doubt that Seven Straight Nights will change countless lives. I'm thrilled to watch it happen to get swept up in the aftermath.
Visit www.sfnyc.org/7SN or email to 7SN@sfnyc.org for more information and to sign-up for events in New York City. Visit www.sevenstraightnights.org for more information on the national campaign.
It's been a hectic few days as I've been working with Mayra David, a straight young woman who will be coordinating this year's Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights events in New York City. She's been a supporter of Soulforce for years so she's been able to jump right in which makes my job even easier.
